Russell Brand becomes only person on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” doing his or her job

Looks like CNN picked the right morning to relaunch its morning news program.

Meanwhile, over on MSNBC, Monday’s “Morning Joe” invited comedian Russell Brand onto its show, only to reveal to anyone watching MSNBC that Brand was the only person on set prepared to be on television. Seriously.

How it is that Mika Brzezkinski, Brian Schactman and Katty Kay earned money from any legitimate news organization to represent themselves as reporters and/or anchors is mind-boggling, considering how little effort they displayed in caring to learn about their guest, ask questions to spark an educational or even entertaining discussion, or try to hold a casual viewer’s attention with news on the cable news channel.

Forget for a moment that Brand is a comedian. I’ll pause why some of you wryly note that you’d already done that. Very well then.

Also try not to defend this trio of professional journalists by trying to change the conversation or the channel over to FOX News, CNN or somewhere else for a similarly vexing-in-its-trifling subject matter.

They invited Brand on TV to talk to him about his world tour, only to immediately mock his appearance, his accent, and obsess over their own non sequiturs.

This is why FX continues to be in the Russell Brand business. He may not have figured out how to win over audiences when he has complete control over the programming content, but he certainly knows how to practice the principles of serenity and courage in the face of live televised madness.

Roll the clip.

via Gawker

Oh, and I’d be remiss in my duties as a comedy journalist if I didn’t provide you with a link to the actual stand-up comedy tour to which Russell Brand is undertaking — and which made a stop in Chicago last week for Just For Laughs Chicago. It picks up again at the end of July, with dates across North America, Europe and Africa.

Russell Brand’s Messiah Complex World Tour 2013

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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One thought on “Russell Brand becomes only person on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” doing his or her job

  1. YES!!!!!!!!!

    Thank you Russell!!! Everyone who thinks they know show biz should watch this. The reason I rarely watch newsie/variety/morning garbage is to see what I WOULD NOT do as a producer.

    Notice how they all want to ‘go to break’ after he points out the entire show is simply amateurish? Mika and Joe are self absorbed. What they look like is most important. Simply look at the shows intro and the focus on fashion rather than news. It looks more like a Vouge magazine cover rather than a proper intro. Simply look at how unprepared they all are.

    Comedians are incredibly intelligent, wise and intuitive. The smartest person in the room is almost always a comedian. Yet people dismiss them as nothing more than a laugh. We just saw that in action. I bet this makes everyone on MSNBC Morning Joe a little more aware. How do I know? It’s because they were exposed as unprepared and amateurish and simply wanted to “Go to commercial” rather than say “You are right”.

    Do we really want to take these people seriously when giving their opinion? That is their job right?

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